Though the two never met, Mr Lim was kept updated on Bryan's
progress by the people at the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) until
he left for his studies in Britain three years later.

On Wednesday, Mr Lim, now 23, finally got to meet the boy he saved at the BMDP office at Mohamed Sultan Road.

According to an anonymity clause, a bone marrow donor and recipient can meet only after two years.

Bryan's mother, Madam Roseline Chin, 38, wanted to thank Mr Lim in person and had asked BMDP to help arrange a meeting.

There to meet Mr Lim were Bryan, his brother Brandon, 10, his mother and grandparents.

Initially, Bryan was shy, but his grateful mother broke the ice.

"If
it wasn't for this young man, my son would not have a chance in life.
He not only came through once, but also the second time when he was
approached. For that, I am forever grateful," she told The New Paper.

Bryan's immunodeficiency disorder was not diagnosed until he was three.

"His
younger brother Brandon was diagnosed at birth. Since he had the same
symptoms, Bryan was tested too," Madam Chin, an early childhood
educator, said.

Bryan underwent Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy and was often in and out of the hospital.

In
2007, Brandon received a stem-cell transplant from cord blood, making
him the second recipient of cord blood from the Singapore Cord Blood
Bank, less than two years after it opened its doors.

But Bryan did not find a match at the bank and had to turn to the bone marrow option.

It
took BMDP a year to find a perfect match in Mr Lim. And in the same
year as his brother's transplant, Bryan had his at the National
University Hospital.

But complications soon set in.

Infection

Said
Madam Chin: "His doctors thought after the transplant he would be out
of the woods but on the 40th day post-surgery, his immune system crashed
and he suffered fungal infection."

"None of the antibiotics given
to him was effective. He suffered a stroke, became blind in his right
eye and fell into a coma. The hospital told me I had to prepare for the
worst, unless the donor was willing to donate his marrow again."

Madam Chin admitted she went into a depression and "was not at all hopeful".

"How
many people would give once, let alone twice? But Shi Hong was godsend.
He offered a sliver of light in my dark period when he said 'yes' for
the second time," she said, her eyes brimming with tears.

19 when he first saved a life

Mr Lim was
serving his national service at the Officer Cadet School (OCS), when he
was first told he was a match to save a boy with Hyper-IgM Syndrome.

"I was in Hwa Chong Junior College when BMDP came to give a
talk. I was convinced it was a very good cause and gave my blood sample.
Little did I know I would be called upon," he said.

He said his parents were very supportive when he told them he had been called to be a donor.

"But
my grandmother, being very 'traditional', was very worried and was
trying to dissuade me. She was concerned that this operation would
affect my own health," he said.

When approached a second time and told of the urgency, Mr Lim did not hesitate, much to the chagrin of his grandmother.

"Since I was in OCS, I had to inform my supervisor, who gave me permission to go ahead," he said.

After donating, Mr Lim went on with his life, and Bryan was discharged after spending about half a year in the hospital.

"Someone
from BMDP kept me in the loop of the recipient's medical progress. But I
lost touch three years ago when I left for my studies," he said.

He is currently doing a post-graduate course in mechanical engineering in Britain and is back in Singapore for the holidays.

President
of BMDP Jane Prior said: "We are looking at young people like Shi Hong
to step up as volunteer donors. They are in their prime and would be the
best candidates to offer help to those who need transplants."

Thank you

To encourage them, BMDP is organising Match for Life, a high-profile drive to recruit at least 3,000 new donors.

Today, Bryan is back at Dazhong Primary, and playing football,
something both he and his mother never thought he would be able to
enjoy.

"The first day he stepped into his school after his medical
ordeal, he said 'I never thought I'd be able to come back here again',"
Madam Chin said.

To say thank you to his saviour, Bryan made a
photo collage of his being in hospital and his travels after being given
a second lease on life.

"It is my way of saying 'Kor kor, thank
you for giving my life back to me and allowing me to do stuff other boys
do'," he told TNP before presenting it together with a drawing to Mr
Lim.

What's Hyper-IgM Syndrome?

Hyper-IgM
Syndrome is a immunodeficiency disorder present from birth. A child with
this congenital disorder fails to produce certain specific types of
antibodies.

It affects only boys, but girls are often carriers.
The disorder shows up during the first year of life when the child
develops recurrent infections of the respiratory tract and chronic
diarrhoea that do not respond to standard antibiotic treatment.

The disorder causes frequent infections of the ears, eyes, sinuses, lungs, skin, respiratory tract and other areas of the body.

Children who are not diagnosed early, may show delays in growth and normal weight gain.

Bone marrow transplants are considered a cure for immunodeficiency disorders that are present from birth.

The
best sources of bone marrow for transplants are the affected child’s
siblings or one of the parents, as the closer the match, the lower the
chances of rejection.

Stem
cell transplants from cord blood have two advantages over bone marrow
transplants – lower rate of rejection in recipients, and they can be
stored ahead of time.

Bone marrow recipients, like Bryan Pang, owe
their lives to the thousands of anonymous donors who register
themselves with the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP), a group that
matches bone marrow donors with patients.

Bone Marrow Donor Programme and what it does

Established
in 1993, BMDP is a non-profit organisation responsible for building and
managing Singapore’s only register of volunteer donors, who are willing
to donate their bone marrow to save the lives of patients with
leukaemia and other blood diseases.

The BMDP also provides a 365-day service to hospitals here to
search the local register – and if necessary, partner registers around
the world – for a match.

Every day, six Singaporeans are diagnosed with various life-threatening blood diseases, such as leukaemia and lymphoma.

Many
will not survive without transplant using donor bone marrow or stem
cells from cord blood. To date, there are 50,000 donors on the database
and BMDP has facilitated over 420 transplants. To improve the odds of
finding a match, BMDP aims to increase the register by 5,000 new donors
each year.

Next month, BMDP is organising Match for Life, a high-profile drive to recruit at least 3,000 new donors.

Save
a life A collaboration between the BMDP and the corporate sector, Match
for Life aims to take advantage of the communications infrastructure
within each organisation to reach out and educate staff on the role they
can play in saving a life.

President of BMDP Jane Prior said:
“Signing up as a bone marrow donor takes just a few moments, but the
commitment to actually donate in the future if identified as a match,
means that people must be fully-aware of the long-term implications.

"By
sharing details about our work through company intranets and speaking
to staff at lunch talks and other forums, we are confident that more
people will step forward to commit to our life-saving mission."

A
swab of the cheek for DNA is needed to put a person in the database. The
BMDP receives no Government funding, and it needs to raise $2 million
for laboratory tests required to add each new donor to the database.